Background
Rawson, Hugh Robert was born on September 12, 1936 in New York City. Son of Clayton Ashley Rawson and Catherine Alice Stone.
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book
Wicked Words: A Treasury of Curses, Insults, Put-Downs, and Other Formerly Unprintable Terms from Anglo-Saxon Times to the Present
(The author of Crown's A Dictionary of Euphemisms and Othe...)
The author of Crown's A Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk has fun at the other end of the language spectrum in this witty, anecdote-filled guide to the many impolite, insulting, and just plain "bad" words with which the English language is blessed. Line drawings.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0517590891/?tag=2022091-20
Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions-And More Than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and Phrases by Rawson, Hugh (2000) Paperback
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01181FUJK/?tag=2022091-20
Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions -- And More Than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and P hrases
(In this marvelously entertaining book, word maven Hugh Ra...)
In this marvelously entertaining book, word maven Hugh Rawson rounds up 1,000 words and phrases whose origins are not what you might expect. Some wiseacre (the word has nothing to do with land measure) may have told you that a tip is given to a waiter "to insure promptness," or that S.O.S. stands for "Save Our Ship," or that hooker is a tribute to the character of Joseph Hooker, the Civil War general. Like hundreds of popular etymologies, these oft-repeated accounts are just too good to be true. Now Mr. Rawson punctures the myths, gives the real derivations, and along the way provides many insights into how language works. From the Trade Paperback edition.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0517580667/?tag=2022091-20
An Investment in Knowledge
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0814702392/?tag=2022091-20
Unwritten Laws: The Unofficial Rules of Life as Handed Down by Murphy and Other Sages
(CAPONE'S LAW. You can get a lot more done with a kind wor...)
CAPONE'S LAW. You can get a lot more done with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone. LANCE'S LAW. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. MILLER'S LAW. The quality of food in restaurants is in inverse proportion to the number of signed celebrity photographs on the wall. WALPOLE'S LAW. Every man has his price. Unwritten Laws is a wonderfully entertaining treasury of more than five hundred rules, strategies, and ironical insights, with many amendments and corollaries, all associated with particular individuals. Organized alphabetically, from Lady Astor ("All women marry beneath them.") to Zeno ("The goal of life is living in agreement with nature."), from Woody Allen ("Eighty percent of success is showing up.") to Oscar Wilde ("There are two tragedies in life. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it."), Unwritten Laws contains a generous sampling of the collective wisdom of humankind. Hugh Rawson not only gives sources and dates for the law's, but annotates them with fascinating details. For example, Alfred Lord Tennyson's widely accepted "In the spring a young man's fancy turns lightly to thoughts of love" turns out to be a mistake, recent research showing that male testosterone levels are actually higher in the fall! This delightful book is as wonderful for browsing as it is for providing guidance over the rocks and shoals of life. From the Trade Paperback edition.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0517592797/?tag=2022091-20
Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions--And More Than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and Phrases
(In Devious Derivations, word maven Hugh Rawson brings you...)
In Devious Derivations, word maven Hugh Rawson brings you a marvelously entertaining roundup of 1,000 spurious etymologies, then enlightens you with their genuine counterparts. Some wiseacre (which, by the way, has nothing to do with a land measure) may have told you that a tip is something you give to a waiter "To Insure Promptness," or that James I once knighted a remarkable side of beef, saying "Arise, Sir Loin," but like hundreds of oft-repeated accounts of word origins, they're just too good to be true. People, it seems, are etymologizing creatures, and if a certain lexical lineage is unclear, they are sure to invent one. If you hear that pumpernickel was named by Napoleon Bonaparte, who, upon being served the dark German bread, derided it as "pain pour Nicol" (bread for his horse, Nicol), you can take it with a grain of salt (which since 1647 has been making questionable tales, like questionable meat, more palatable). The same goes for condom (there is no evidence of a Doctor or Colonel Condom ever existing), crap (only coincidentally related to the toilet innovator Thomas Crapper), SOS (not from "Save Our Ship," let alone "Save Our Souls"), and Baby Ruth (often credited erroneously to the legendary baseball player). So when you're trying like the dickens (which has nothing to do with the novelist) to figure out what BVD stands for (hint: it's not Boy's Ventilated Drawers), don't be an ignoramus (which does not come from the word ignorant)--check out Devious Derivations. In the end, knowing the origins of words and phrases adds new meaning to them and enables the person who is conscious of all their nuances to employ them more artfully.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/078581700X/?tag=2022091-20
If It Ain't Broke... - The Unwritten Laws of Life
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000V0M8K4/?tag=2022091-20
Devious Derivations - Popular Misconceptions and More Than 1000 True Origins of Common Words and Phrases
(Brings together some 1,000 picturesque but spurious folk ...)
Brings together some 1,000 picturesque but spurious folk etymologies, those logical but mistaken explanations of the derivations of words and phrases. "A valuable reference and a great delight to read....On the average you'll be astounded twice per page."-Martin Gardner. If William Safire and David Letterman ever collaborate on a book about words, this could be their model. Beginning with adulteress (erroneously attributed to an au pair who called grown men "adults" and grown women "adulteresses") and ending with zip (which has apparently always meant absolutely nothing), Rawson (Wicked Words , Crown, 1989, among others) lists the derivations of over 1000 words. Although funny, the work has a more scholarly premise, namely, that these mistaken ideas tell us something of how people thought. Yet a collection of meanings cannot alone prove that point; the reader is left to wonder why the word adulteress would be attributed to an uneducated au pair. It may be interesting to know that a ten-gallon hat comes from the Spanish sombrero galon (hat with braid decoration), but for the most part the book is only of specialized use. Recommended for libraries with large collections in etymology.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00125GKBU/?tag=2022091-20
- Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions - And More Than 1,000 True Origins o
- Wicked Words: A Treasury of Curses, Insults, Put-Downs, and Other Formerly Unprintable Terms from Anglo-Saxon Times to the Present by Hugh Rawson (1992-09-01)
- The New International Dictionary of Quotations
- Wicked Words (The author of Crown's A Dictionary of Euphemisms and...)
- Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions-And More Than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and Phrases by Hugh Rawson (2000-04-03)
- Unwritten Laws: The Unofficial Rules of Life as Handed Down by Murphy and Other Sages by Hugh Rawson (1998-08-04)
- Unwritten Laws: The Unofficial Rules of Life as Handed Down by Murphy and Other Sages (CAPONE'S LAW. You can get a lot more done with a kin...)
- Unwritten Laws: The Unofficial Rules of Life as Handed Down by Murphy and Other Sages by Hugh Rawson (2002-09-01)
Hugh Robert Rawson
Edit Profilewriter Book publishing executive
Education
Bachelor, Yale University, 1956.
Career
Reporter, The American Banker, New York City, 1958-1960; senior editor, Purchasing Week, New York City, 1961-1963; associate research scientist, New York University, New York City, 1964-1965; senior editor, Lippincott & Crowell (division HarperCollins), New York City, 1965-1980; editor, Authors Guild Bulletin, New York City, 1982-1994; director, Penguin Reference Books, Penguin Putnam Inc., New York City, since 1994. Consultant New American Library., Dutton division Penguin United States of America, New York City, 1982-1994.
Achievements
Works
book
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Wicked Words: A Treasury of Curses, Insults, Put-Downs, and Other Formerly Unprintable Terms from Anglo-Saxon Times to the Present
(The author of Crown's A Dictionary of Euphemisms and Othe...)
-
Wicked Words
(The author of Crown's A Dictionary of Euphemisms and Othe...)
-
Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions--And More Than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and Phrases
(In Devious Derivations, word maven Hugh Rawson brings you...)
-
Devious Derivations - Popular Misconceptions and More Than 1000 True Origins of Common Words and Phrases
(Brings together some 1,000 picturesque but spurious folk ...)
-
Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions -- And More Than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and P hrases
(In this marvelously entertaining book, word maven Hugh Ra...)
-
Unwritten Laws: The Unofficial Rules of Life as Handed Down by Murphy and Other Sages
(CAPONE'S LAW. You can get a lot more done with a kind wor...)
-
Unwritten Laws: The Unofficial Rules of Life as Handed Down by Murphy and Other Sages
(CAPONE'S LAW. You can get a lot more done with a kind wor...)
- Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions - And More Than 1,000 True Origins o
- Wicked Words: A Treasury of Curses, Insults, Put-Downs, and Other Formerly Unprintable Terms from Anglo-Saxon Times to the Present by Hugh Rawson (1992-09-01)
- The New International Dictionary of Quotations
- Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions-And More Than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and Phrases by Rawson, Hugh (2000) Paperback
- An Investment in Knowledge
- If It Ain't Broke... - The Unwritten Laws of Life
- Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions-And More Than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and Phrases by Hugh Rawson (2000-04-03)
- Unwritten Laws: The Unofficial Rules of Life as Handed Down by Murphy and Other Sages by Hugh Rawson (1998-08-04)
- Unwritten Laws: The Unofficial Rules of Life as Handed Down by Murphy and Other Sages by Hugh Rawson (2002-09-01)
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Wicked Words: A Treasury of Curses, Insults, Put-Downs, and Other Formerly Unprintable Terms from Anglo-Saxon Times to the Present
Membership
Member Conservation Commission, Roxbury Town Democratic Committee, member Board Finance, Roxbury, Connecticut With United States Army Medical Corps, 1956-1958. Member Connecticut Community Scholarship Policy Committee, board member After School Arts Program, Roxbury Scholarship Foundation. Member The Authors Guild, Yale Club New York City, Washington Club (Washington, Connecticut).
Interests
Connections
Married Margaret Fuller Miner, June 9, 1973. Children: Nathaniel Clayton Miner, Catherine Frances Miner.
Education
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1956
Career
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1958 - 1960
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1961 - 1963
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1964 - 1965
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1965 - 1980
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1982 - 1994
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1994
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2002 - 2007